superiority to her compels her to obey and comply I shall demonstrate. One day I’ll tell her, ‘This is a day on which the married desist and active lovers to celibacy keep’ to which she’ll reply, ‘I shall be the first to desist and the last to sleep.’ Should I tell her, ‘It’s not attractive for a respectable married woman to put her charms on display,’ she’ll tell me, ‘Or flirt and play,’ and if I tell her, ‘A wife her husband once a week has a right to expect,’ she’ll tell me, ‘While remaining chaste and worthy of respect.’ If I tell her, ‘Jewelry’s no requirement for a wedding,’ she’ll tell me, ‘and nor is brocade, that most evil cladding.’ Taken as a whole, my life with her will be easy, my state happy, my good fortune extensive, my food wholesome, my drink healthy, my clothes clean, my bed comfy, my possessions well guarded, my house no longer lonesome. Good cheer will be there, my every effort blessed, my status one of note, my endeavors guaranteed success. Hie ye then to marriage with a jolly girl who’s full of coquetry, whose looks provide a cure for bankruptcy, and to bed whom is to ride the road to victory!” End.
3.2.9
وانا اقول ان مما غُرس فى هذه الطينة البشرية اللَثِية ان الرجل متى وطّن نفسه على الزواج حبّب الله اليه زوجه على اية حالة كانت حتى يراها احسن الناس خُلقا وخَلقا * لا بل يرى نفسه انه قد ترفع عن اقرانه * وتمزىّ على اخوانه * حتى يستخسّ ما كان من قبل يستعظمه * وانه قد صار انسانا جديدا يجدر بان يجدد له وجه الارض * وبنآ على ذلك لم يعد الفارياق يرضى بالاغانى والاشعار المتعارفة بل استبدل الاولى باخرى جديدة من نظمه * ونظم خلال ذلك قصيدتين حاول فيهما اختراع اسلوب غريب فجاتا طيخيّتين كما سترى ذلك * ولو استطاع ان يخترع كلاما جديدا يعبّر به غرامه وحديث شانه لفعل *
I further declare that it is a fact, deeply rooted in our sticky human clay, that when a man sets his heart on getting married, God endears his spouse to him however she be and makes him believe she’s the best of people, morally and physically. And that’s not all: the man may well believe that he’s been elevated above his peers and distinguished among his brethren to the point that he dismisses as trivial what previously he saw as important and imagines that he has become a new person, for whom the face of the earth ought, by rights, to be remade. It follows that the Fāriyāq no longer found contentment in the old familiar songs and poetry; instead, he substituted for them other, new ones of his own composition. In the process, he composed two poems17 in which he attempted to invent a strange new style, with the result that they turned out quite titter-making, as you shall see—and had he had the ability to invent a new form of speech to express his passion and rejuvenation, he would have done so.
3.2.10
وكان اذا راى رجلا متزوجا يهيب به وينشده
| انا فى حلبة الزواج المجلّى | انما انت فُسكل قاشور |
| ان قدحى يفوز عما قريب | انما قدحك السفيح يبور |
او عزبا قال له
| يا ايها الاعزاب انى رافض | دين العزوبة فاقتدوا بمثاليا |
| ليس الغِنَى الا البعال فبادروا | يا قوم واستغنوا بمثل بعاليا |
وتهوّس يوما لان ينظم ديوانا يشتمل على ابيات مفردة تهافتا على احداث شى غريب فنظم اربعة ابيات ثم امسك * وهى
| ساعة البعد عنك شهر وعام | الوصل يمضى كانما هو ساعه |
| اتنجم الليل الطويل صبابة | وتنجمى لنجوم ذى تفليك |
| ويخفق منى القلب ان هبت الصبا | ويذكرنى البدر المنير محياك |
| الا ليت شعرى كم يقاسى من النوى | وانحائه قلب يذوب تجلدا |
ومن الفضول هنا ان نقول انه كان يقول لخطيبته انك ملأت عينى قرة * وانى اراك احسن الخلق * وانّا ليغبطنا الناس * وانك تغنينى عن الغنى * وانى بقربك سعيد * ويبعدك عميد * وانّا نكون ابدا كما نحن الان * وانك ذات ملاحة تشغل الخلىّ * وانى اغار عليك من النسيم يفيّئ شعرك هذا الدجىّ * وانّا لجسمان فى روح واحد او روحان فى جسم واحد * وانك لترين منى كل يوم محبّا جديدا * وانى لارى فيك كل وقت حسنا حديثا * وانّا نكون قدوة للمتزوجين والعاشقين * الى غير ذلك من الكلام المتعارف عند امثاله *
Thus, should he lay eyes on a married man, he’d call out to him and sing as follows:
On the racetrack of marriage, I’m the front-runner
While you’re the also-ran last-placer.
My shaft soon will take the prize
While your luckless stick’s a failure.18
Or, should he see a bachelor, he’d tell him:
Bachelors, the creed of the single man
I have renounced, so do as I have done.
There is no wealth but marriage, so have at it, friends:
Enrich yourselves and gain what I have won.
And one day, infatuated with the idea of creating something strange and new, he became obsessed with the idea of composing a collection of poetry that would consist entirely of single verses.19 He wrote four and then gave up. They were:
Like a month is an hour of separation from you, but a year
